Actors from The Quirky Bird Theatre fly into Swindon tomorrow for a night of comedy theatre.

The show will be packed with Improv Theatre, classic sketches, lip-sync battles and community panto.

Director and teacher Anna Friend who set up Quirky Bird Theatre was born in Portsmouth but grew up in Berkshire. She moved to Thornbury with her parents when she was 16, where she lived for two years before heading for Middlesex University to study for a degree in English and drama.

“Over the course of three years, I fell in love with directing and design,” she said. “I did lots of design work and looking after the backstage stuff.”

After graduating, she took a job in a film company making music videos. The job included working with All Saints, the Sugarbabes and Artful Dodger.

Anna later retrained as a drama specialist at the Central School of Speech and Drama, and started teaching in London, before moving to the Wells Cathedral School in Somerset to take the post of head of department, where she set up her first youth theatre group – the Wells Community Theatre.

“We did a couple of productions each year and were fortunate to have a strong core of amazing young actors. I rediscovered how much I loved directing.”

She also met her husband and in 2012 he got a teaching job in Wiltshire and they lived in Calne, Marlborough and Wootton Bassett, before settling in their current home in Purton. Now a mother of two, decided to take up a new challenge.

“I worked for Stagecoach in Swindon for a while, then set up Marlborough Young Actors in 2013,” she said.

With a cast of young actors, she went to the Harold Jolliffe One Act Play Festival with a 50-minute version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream – which won eight awards and reached to semi-finals. They performed Teechers by John Godber and DNA by Dennis Kelly.

“In the summer of 2015, we discussed what I was going to do, and I decided to make this bigger and more substantial, make it the thing I do. I rebranded and racked my brains for a name – and chose Quirky Bird Theatre. I wanted the name to appeal to families and children, but one that reflected who we are and what we do. And I’m a quirky bird,” she said.

Now Quirky Bird is thriving and in this latest comedy night there will be opportunities for the audience to get involved. Quirky Bird is raising much needed funds for Cancer Research!

The Quirky Bird’s Comedy Fundraiser is at 7.30pm tomorrow, Saturday, January 18, in The Spotlight Room, Wyvern Theatre, Theatre Square, Swindon. Tickets are £12 from 01793 524481 or visit quirkybirdtheatre.com.